Cuba's Dayron Robles (C) runs to victory over China's Liu Xiang (L) and US athlete Jason Richardson (R) as he competes in the men's 110 meters hurdles final at the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships in Daegu on August 29, 2011., By KIM JAE-HWAN/AFP/Getty Images.

Of all the winners at last year’s track-and-field world championships, 110-meter hurdler Jason Richardson was certainly one of the most unexpected. Though he came in second, he won by a technicality—a fact that will undoubtedly influence his competition at the Olympic Games come July.

After 80 meters, the eight-man field had come down to three: Richardson, an American in his first-ever world championships; Cuba’s Dayron Robles, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist; and China’s Liu Xiang, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist.

Robles and Richardson had started fastest on opposite sides of the track, with Robles maintaining a slight edge. The rest of the field, in an effort to catch up, had knocked down several hurdles, leaving behind only the clatter that underscores every hurdles race. Liu had recovered from his slow start, and with only 3 of 10 hurdles remaining, he crept up on Robles in the lane beside him. Aware of Liu’s threat, Robles hit the next hurdle, granting Liu the lead. It appeared Robles could do nothing to stop him. Perhaps instinctively, Robles reached out as the two jumped the penultimate hurdle and, in what appeared to be an act of desperation, slapped at Liu’s arm. Nothing happened. Robles reached out once more over the final hurdle, and this time he grabbed Liu’s arm instead. Liu faltered, fell behind, and stumbled to the finish line. Robles crossed first, Richardson second, Liu third.

Robles exulted, and then, oddly, embraced a stunned Liu. Oblivious to the controversy that had just taken place, Richardson wandered the track, overcome with emotion. He had turned pro only two years earlier, and he had just won the silver medal in the world championships.

Moments later, after Robles had been disqualified for obstruction, Richardson was reassigned the gold medal.

“I’m comfortable with the color silver,” he said shortly after his surprise victory. “Now I guess I’ve got to get used to gold.”

Afterward, Robles protested the decision, to no avail, and Richardson still defends the call.

“We do come into situations where we hit people every now and again,” admits the 26-year-old Richardson. “We have so much movement going on in the lane itself that the width of the lane actually matters for us. . . . But the degree of interference is what’s at question.” He later added: “I wish it would’ve entailed me coming on top in a clean, drama-free race.”

Indeed, this summer in London it will be fresh on the minds of all his competitors, including Robles, Liu, and American Aries Merritt, who defeated Richardson at the U.S. Olympic trials at the end of June. A medal won’t be the only thing at stake at the Olympics. Atonement will be, too.

Richardson is aware of this. “The amount of pressure is crazy,” he says. His coping strategy? Make as many jokes as possible.

“I kind of have a little A.D.D.,” Richardson says. “I refuse to just train and go home . . . I literally find anything to laugh at. If it’s funny, if it’s possibly funny, if there’s a two-percent chance it’s funny, I’m going to laugh at it.”

Richardson plans on bringing his jocular attitude to London, where he will follow his usual race-day routine. “I eat breakfast ridiculously early, like six a.m.,” he says. “Then I turn my little room into a sanctuary. I’ve got all this gospel music going as loud as possible like it’s rap music. I get dressed and make jokes all the way to the starting line.” And once there? “I just figure out how to stay on my feet,” he says. With the 10 hurdles before him and the distractions on either side, that’s a lot harder than it sounds.